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Rowling of Harry Potter Series Listed as Billionaire

Posted February. 27, 2004 22:38,   

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The author of the Harry Potter series, Joan K. Rowling, and the co-founders of search engine Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were all newly included on the billionaire list this year.

U.S. business magazine Forbes announced a list of billionaires who have more than a billion dollars on February 26.

The Fixed First Rank - Bill Gates

Due to a rise in stock prices and strong euros, the number of wealthy individuals who have more than one billion dollars reached 587, an increase of 111. Sixty-four newcomers were added to the list, and 47 people returned after having been left off.

The chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has kept first place for 10 years with published earnings of $46.6 billion. He is closely followed up by the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffet with his $42.9 billion which was increased by $12.4 billion in a year’s time.

The founder of Aldi, a German supermarket chain, Karl Albrecht took third place and his brother Teo Albrecht took fourteenth. They developed a small store run by their mother into about 6500 chains.

Prince of Saudi Arabia Al-Walid bin Talal, known as a worldwide investor, as shown by his investment acumen in the city group, ranked the fourth with a record of $10 billion.

The five heirs of Sam Walton who set up WalMart in 1962 ranked a joint sixth place having $20 billion each. The Walton’s contributions last year reached $750 million including a $30 million donation to the University of Akansas.

Unique Billionaires

The founder of Ikea, a moderately priced furniture company in Sweden, Ingvar Kamprad, is labeled a stingy man because of his using an “economy” class seat for an official trip and driving a ten year old Volvo although he is the thirteenth wealthiest man in the world.

The chairman of Cheung Kung group in Hong Kong Likasing appeared as the wealthiest man in Asia holding a joint nineteenth place with $12.4 billion.

Three of the billionaires are in jail including Russian tycoon Mihail Hodorovski, ranked sixteenth, who was arrested on a charge of fraud last October.

The most dramatic billionaire inductee is Joan K. Rowling who was once so poor that a few years ago she had to write in a café because she had no money for heat. She took the joint 552nd place with one billion dollars as she sold 25 million Harry Potter books and also had much success from the films based on the series.

As for Korea, the chairman Lee Kun-hee of Samsung ranked 140th with $3.6 billion and the chairman Shin Kyuk-ho of the Lotte Group ranked 310th with $1.8 billion, but those records were lower than last year. At that time, Lee was 123rd with $2.8 billion and Shin was 177th with $2.2 billion.

Even though Cuban president Fidel Castro could not be included in the list, Forbes stated he is wealthy enough having about $15 million. The magazine said, “Castro in working clothes has luxury houses all around Cuba and he travels with a parade of black Benzes.” According to the report, he sold Havana Club rum to a French cooperation in 1993 for the price of $50 million and earns about $20 million every year through contracts with European companies. The average age of billionaires selected by Forbes was 64, but 27 of them were under their 40s. 326 were self-made and 16 dropped out of high school. Their residential cities appeared as New York (31 people), Moscow (23), Hong Kong (16) and Paris (10).



Kwon-Heui Hong konihong@donga.com